Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO ONE IN BEDLAM, by ERNEST CHRISTOPHER DOWSON



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO ONE IN BEDLAM, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: With delicate, mad hands, behind his sordid bars
Last Line: The star-crowned solitude of thine oblivious hours!
Subject(s): Insanity; Madness; Mental Illness


With delicate, mad hands, behind his sordid bars,
Surely he hath his posies, which they tear and twine;
Those scentless wisps of straw that, miserable, line
His strait, caged universe, whereat the dull world stares.

Pedant and pitiful. O, how his rapt gaze wars
With their stupidity! Know they what dreams divine
Lift his long, laughing reveries like enchanted wine,
And make his melancholy germane to the stars'?

O lamentable brother! if those pity thee,
Am I not fain of all thy lone eyes promise me;
Half a fool's kingdom, far from men who sow and reap,
All their days, vanity? Better then mortal flowers,
Thy moon-kissed roses seem: better than love or sleep,
The star-crowned solitude of thine oblivious hours!





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